Boston Cream Pie and a birthday
April 6, 2007 at 7:33 PM
by Ashleigh
Boston Cream PieThe husband is 34 as of yesterday!
It always gives me a taste of what's to come when he has his birthday, because nine months later I'm facing mine!
It was a low key birthday. Everything is so busy with Easter preparations that we didn't really have time to celebrate.
Yesterday we had pizza (his choice) for dinner and today I got around to making his cake.
Sebastian is responsible for the cake choice. After perusing the Nigella books at length, and taking his dad's considerations into account Sebastian selected a Boston Cream Pie.
It had three of our family's favourite ingredients - chocolate, sponge cake and custard.
I think Sebastian has a bit of a crush on Nigella. Perhaps he wants to marry a domestic goddess? He calls her Ni-ghella with a g instead of a hard j sound and he reads her recipe books for fun.
He seems captivated by my ability to bake. He offered my baking services to the entire committee of the volkstuin association. In return we mysteriously gained an apple tree! I can see lots of apple pie in my future!
So, Boston Cream Pie it was.
I followed my own basic Victoria sponge recipe: equal quantities butter, sugar, flour, eggs with some milk, baking powder and vanilla added. The creme patisserie was pretty easy to make and came out beautifully. I will definitely make it again as a filling for eclairs and other pastries.
I don't have any vanilla pods, so I used essence, but I can't help wondering if the flavour is really that different with real vanilla. Real vanilla seems a bit of a larney thing to me. (Larney is Zimbabwe slang for 'posh'). I've never actually used vanilla in pod form. I guess I'm a vanilla virgin!
Anyway, the creme patisserie sandwiched the layers of Victoria sponge together and then I made a chocolate ganache to pour over the cake.
I think I may have used too much cream as it didn't thicken as much as I would have liked. I didn't want to put the cake in the fridge to set because I was afraid that the chocolate might bloom, so it was still a little bit drippy when we ate it. Gorgeous though!
My consensus on this cake is that it's a very grown up cake. The dark chocolate in the ganache makes it slightly bitter, nicely set off by the custard filling. The cake really serves as a vehicle for the other two flavours. The lovely gloss on the ganache comes from the addition of a lump of butter to the chocolate and cream mixture.
Here's a recipe at The Joy of Baking for a Boston Cream Pie, which is pretty much identical to the recipe I followed.
Comments
Hello! I saw the comment you posted on Every Little Thing, about stopping before buying Real Simple magazine because simplifying seemed to make more sense without the purchase. I know exactly what you mean -- I have a weird relationship with that magazine largely for that reason. BUT, I don't buy it -- I set up a magazine exchange where I work. I wanted to encourage you to do the same but I'm not sure with you're being overseas if it still would make sense for you, but here' how it works. have a container in a central location where lots of people have easy access. have them drop off magazines they are done with (and that they'd otherwise be recycling). Then, anyone else can take a magazine -- returning it when finished or not. Anyway, I've been able to stop my habit of buying magazines (which I love) by instead waiting for someone else's copy to hit the box.... I enjoyed reading your blog!
Ash: Hi Jennifer! I do have an exchange system with Dutch magazines, but don't have anyone who likes the same English ones as me! Luckily I do recycle them by passing them onto hospitals/dr's waiting rooms etc. I think a magazine exchange in a workplace is a wonderful thing! Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting :)
Sounds (reads) yummy!
I used to make my own vanilla essence -- a vanilla bean or two in a litre of vodka, leave it closed for a year (that's kind of hard, 'cause you want to 'see how it's doing' after like three months :-) and voila, posh vanilla!
Where do you get your baking powder in NL?
Ash: Hi Susan, I'm lucky, I have a delicatessen right near me with baking powder. Mostly I use the normal Backin though, and only break out the English one for things I really don't want to take a chance on.
that cake sounds wonderful! yam, yam! what kind of appletree? if they gave you 'goudreinet', you can bet they are counting on applepies :)
That cake looks lovely!
You inspired me to take a picture and post it on my blog.
Happy birthday, Mr. Stitched :-)
Ow, that's a male cake if I ever seen one! Seriously all the men in my house would immediately vote for you as their domestic goddess.
Love to have your recipe for the sponge...please? I am no good at baking cakes... and since the twins birthday is coming up in May...pretty please with chocolate on top?
April 6, 2007 11:48 PM